After visiting Ethiopia and seeing for himself how women and children are forced to walk miles every day for water, an Italian designer and cofounder of Architecture And Vision, became determined to create a solution that would be simple, create local jobs, and provide clean water in any of these mountainous villages.
Named WarkaWater, for the traditional warka trees which are vanishing from the landscape there, towers made of bamboo and fabric were created to harvest potable water from the evening air.
The nine-meters tall towers use special fabric hanging inside capable of collecting water through the air via condensation. The lightweight structure is designed with parametric computing, but can be built with local skills and materials by the village inhabitants.
The towers, designed by Arturo Vittori’s VittoriLab, cost approximately $550 each, and can harvest 100 liters of water per day.
(WATCH the video below from the design studio, Architecture and Vision)